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As the world copes with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing urgency to prevent the current health crisis from becoming a food crisis. Measures taken to contain and mitigate the coronavirus have affected people’s lives and livelihoods and have disrupted markets, food supply chains and global trade. In the agriculture sector, reduced capacity to produce, sell and distribute food has affected food availability in local markets, with consequent further impacts on food and nutrition security. The pandemic has created a new set of challenges for food and agriculture, and adequately addressing these will require...

Bogotá, 6 de julio de 2020 - La cultura ancestral del cultivo de algodón nativo en Colombia empezó a escribir una nueva historia. Desde la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, municipio de Cienaga, departamento del Magdalena, en la microcuenca del Río Frio, región de tradición cafetera, fueron cosechados los primeros 1.230 kilos de algodón orgánico en rama, producidos sin uso de químicos, en una estación experimental de la Fundación Prosierra. “Esta es la primera paca comercial de algodón nativo no transgénico en Colombia”, comen

Rome - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has signed a new partnership agreement with Rabobank, a Dutch cooperative bank, with the intention of helping targeted rural communities benefit from more inclusive, sustainable food systems. It also envisages jointly exploring the use of innovative financial instruments to bridge financing gaps in emerging markets and to promote sustainability in food systems investments. FAO and Rabobank will work with key food and agriculture sectors on a series of projects designed to help lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improve land and water use, and empower smallholder farmers to address the...

Water is a scarce natural resource consumed not only by humans, but much more by agriculture. The Isfara river in north Tajikistan, shared with Kyrgyzstan, has been the centre of conflicts over water for many years until five United Nations Agencies stepped in to foster cooperation through fair and sustainable water management under the framework of the South-South Cooperation.

Accra - The COVID-19 pandemic has driven many people to digital platforms in Africa. People are buying, trading and transporting goods and services through digital channels across the continent. FAO, in collaboration with Generation Africa, brought over 200 young agribusiness innovators and other agri-food systems actors together in a webinar to discuss the status of digital solutions in the sector. This movement, spearheaded by young entrepreneurs,  including those interested in agriculture or ‘agripreneurs’, has the potential to support efforts of many farmers and transform agri-food systems during the current crisis, but also in a post-coronavirus Africa.“COVID-19 has brought...